July 22, 2015
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“I suppose it is remotely conceivable that in seeking a waiver, 20 or more government officials could all be wishing to talk to each other through a Web-based e-mail service about such matters as baseball games or retirement luncheons they might be attending,” [Jason R. Baron, a former director of litigation at the National Archives and Records Administration] said. “But it is simply not reasonable to assume that in seeking a waiver that the officials involved were only contemplating using a commercial network for personal (that is, non-official) communications.”

The folks banging the security drum often say, “You shouldn’t need privacy if you don’t have anything to hide.” Well, if that is true, what is the Secretary of Homeland Security and 28 of his senior staff hiding? And if it is just baseball games and retirement luncheons, then why can’t they wait until they get home or go on lunch to conduct that business?

I used to work for Raytheon, a major United States defense contractor. There were some defense projects that you weren’t allowed to conduct personal business at all while you were at the job site whether it was email, phone calls, or any other method of transmission. Besides just being bad form taking up the contract’s time with personal business, it was literally a matter of national security. When you have “Homeland Security” in your title, I would think that you would have more respect for these things.